The cause of suffering in the world
Hello Rabbi Michael,
I recently heard a recorded lesson of yours on perfection and completion in the Mishnah of Rav Kook, and there you said some idea that the world was created lacking in order to allow it to complete itself (or something like that). In another lesson you said that the reason for suffering in the world is probably because God, the Almighty, cannot make a better world than this under any constraints.
Why don’t we say that the suffering in the world was intentionally created as part of this “lack”, so that the world could transcend and eradicate suffering (through medicines, vaccines, air conditioners, etc.)?
Best regards,
Maybe so, and it’s still hard for me to accept that God allows a Holocaust and doesn’t intervene just so that the world can progress. That He would suspend this progress for six years.
It is true that the same can be said about me, that God created a world with laws and left it. And yet my feeling is that a strategic decision to leave is different than an involved God who gives the possibility to move forward. If he is still here – then let him intervene. If he is not – then fine.
———————————————————————————————————————-
Asks:
I think that one of the most powerful engines of progress are the difficult events in history (such as the Holocaust, wars, natural disasters, epidemics, etc.). Without such events, we would be much more at ease. If we knew that there was always someone to save the situation at the last minute, then there would be no reason to make an effort to avoid deteriorating to this “last minute” (see the entry on the effort to prevent the spread of epidemics such as AIDS, the effort to prevent global warming, the effort to prevent a second Holocaust from happening, the effort to avoid deteriorating to a nuclear war, the effort to preserve world peace, the effort to develop medicines, and so on). It’s a bit like having to let a child fall in order for him to learn to walk.
———————————————————————————————————————-
Rabbi:
Well, it’s a question of dosage. There are exceptional situations in which I wouldn’t let my child fail just so he could learn. It’s true that it’s also a bit hard on my system, as I wrote.
What’s more, if the Nazis caused the suffering, then why say that it was “created” by God? It is man-made. At most, it does not save, but it is not that he created the suffering. But a distinction must be made between man-made suffering and natural suffering.
Leave a Reply
Please login or Register to submit your answer
